Major Revision of Hypothyroid Diagnosis Guidelines

March 01, 2003|37,311views

Although thyroid
disease is easy to diagnose and treat, half of the cases in
America remain undiagnosed. Minor thyroid abnormalities may
go unnoticed, but data suggests that many people with low-level
thyroid problems could improve with treatment.

In an effort to
improve diagnosis of thyroid disease, the American Association
of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) has released new guidelines
that narrow the range for acceptable thyroid function.

Doctors typically
base diagnosis of thyroid disease on the "normal"
range for the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test. While
the previous normal range was between 0.5 and 5.0, the new
guidelines narrow the range for acceptable thyroid function
to between 0.3 and 3.04.

Under the new guidelines,
as many as 27 million people may have abnormal thyroid function--more
than double the number of people thought to have abnormal
thyroid function under the old guidelines. These estimates
would make thyroid disease more common in North America than
diabetes.

Women are at an
increased risk for thyroid disease, as they are five to eight
times more likely than men to be diagnosed. The elderly are
also at an increased risk--by the age of 60 years, as many
as 17 percent of women and nine percent of men have an underactive
thyroid. Thyroid disease is also linked to other autoimmune
diseases, including certain types of diabetes, arthritis and
anemia.

The thyroid gland
produces hormones that influence essentially every organ,
tissue and cell in the body. Thyroid disease, if left untreated,
can lead to elevated cholesterol levels and heart disease,
infertility, muscle weakness, osteoporosis and, in extreme
cases, coma or death.

Hypothyroidism
(underactive thyroid) affects some 80 percent of patients
with thyroid disease. Symptoms of hypothyroidism include fatigue,
forgetfulness, depression, constipation, and changes in weight
and appetite.

Experts hope that
the new guidelines will give physicians the information they
need to diagnose mild thyroid disease before it leads to serious
health consequences such as elevated cholesterol, heart disease,
osteoporosis, infertility and depression.

This is one
of the benefits you will continue to receive by reading this
newsletter--you will receive the most current health information,
usually several years before it is widely accepted by the
traditional medical community.

It is wonderful
that more people will be properly diagnosed, but once diagnosed
they will be faced with the dilemma of how to be treated.
Nearly every traditional medical doctor will use synthetic
thyroid to treat the symptoms of low thyroid (see table below).

Unfortunately,
this will not help the bulk of people who are suffering with
these symptoms. This is largely related to the fact that most
people cant effectively convert the pure T4 in the synthetic
thyroid preparations to T3.

However, nearly
all traditional medical doctors believe otherwise despite
strong evidence
to the contrary. If your doctor will not discuss your
request for natural thyroid, this is a major clue that you
will need to find another doctor who understands the truth
about thyroid hormone replacement.

While natural
thyroid hormone (typically Armour thyroid) is better for most
people, some individuals clearly do better on the synthetic
versions. Typically, the longer you have been on synthetic
hormones, especially if it has been three years or longer,
the more difficult it is to successfully switch to Armour
thyroid. This is because the body becomes used to the synthetic
version and learns to adjust and compensate for it.

However, the
key issue here, especially for those who are in the new "marginal"
hypothyroid range of 3 to 5, is whether any thyroid hormone
is needed at all.

My typical approach
is to avoid the use of all thyroid hormones in newly diagnosed
patients. It is quite easy to start someone on thyroid hormones
and relieve their symptoms (see table below). However, once
a person remains on thyroid hormone for a number of years,
there is a great tendency for their thyroid to become progressively
less functional and eventually stop producing any functional
hormones.

Starting a person
on thyroid hormones could condemn them to taking thyroid hormone
for the rest of their life, and this is something I am very
reluctant to do.

So my initial
strategy is to start patients on selenium and iodine to provide
the raw materials for their thyroid gland to work better.

I also look
at emotional issues as in my experience often when the thyroid
stops working properly it is to compensate for dysfunction
from the adrenal gland. The adrenals are typically challenged
due to unresolved emotional stresses.

I have long
ago abandoned the use of adrenal hormone testing, as I have
never found it, or adrenal hormone supplementation, to be
very helpful in addressing the underlying causes of the adrenal
impairment.

The majority
of the time the adrenal impairment was related to unresolved
stress issues that frequently resulted in sleep impairments.
So I would send the person to see one of our six therapists
for treatments (frequently EFT
treatments) to help resolve the adrenal dysfunction.

Fortunately,
most of the people responded quite nicely and were able to
recover their thyroid function and normal thyroid tests without
the use of thyroid hormones.

However, sometimes
this is just not possible, and when that is the case it is
quite rare if natural hormones like Armour thyroid dont
provide outstanding improvement.

Symptoms
of Low Thyroid

Fatigue
(most common)

Skin
can become dry, cold, rough and scaly

Hair
becomes coarse, brittle and grows slowly or may fall out
excessively

Sensitivity
to cold with feelings of being chilly in rooms of normal
temperature

Difficult
for a person to sweat and their perspiration may be decreased
or even absent even during heavy exercise and hot weather

Constipation
that is resistant to magnesium supplementation and other
mild laxatives is also common

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